THE CATHERLOUGH ARMS/THE WINGED SPUR

Robert Knight (1702 – 1772) who purchased Barrells Hall in 1730 was offered an Irish peerage and had to choose an Irish town almost at random. The title Baron Catherlough had become extinct less than a year before (Carden – The Knights of Barrells, 1993).

Robert Knight became Earl of Catherlough in 1763, so ‘The Catherlough Arms’ as an Inn in Ullenhall, may have come into existence around that time. It may have been a new Alehouse/Inn, but could have been a renaming of one already in existence. It was quite usual for a pub on the land of the local gentry to be named after him.

The Crest of the Arms of Robert Knight resembles a winged spur. This was probably on display on the sign outside the Inn or alehouse. By 1834 the name had changed from ‘The Catherlough Arms’ to the ‘Spur’. By the 1880s there starts to be references to the ‘Spur & Wing Inn’ or the ‘Wings & Spur’, and in the 1900s the ‘Winged Spur Inn’.

10/2018